Weighing apparatus and methods for process management

ABSTRACT

A weighing apparatus adapted to facilitate process management and methods associated therewith are described. The weighing apparatus may include a process control interface for including process data onto a label for managing a process.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

The exemplary embodiments relates generally to weighing apparatus and more specifically to weighing apparatus for assisting in the management of inventory and related processes.

Many types of weighing apparatus are known in the art. One type of weighing apparatus may generally be used in the retail environment. Typically, these types of weighing apparatus may be placed in retail establishments such as, but not limited to, grocery stores, department stores and general merchandise stores. These weighing apparatus may be placed in many different locations throughout these stores. For example, the weighing apparatus may be placed in the deli, bakery, meat department, produce department, and/or mini stores. Mini stores may be smaller retail establishments within a larger retail establishment. Examples of mini stores include restaurants, coffee shops, etc.

These locations may have many items that may be subject to spoilage. The items may generally be food items, but are not limited to food items. The food items may be items available for purchase by customers or ingredients to be used with other food items to create another food item which may be sold to customers. The locations associate these items with dates and/or times. The dates/times may show when an item must be sold by, used by or move on to a next step in a process. Currently, these dates/times are created and monitored manually. When an item is created the employee may mark a card or print a label with the appropriate date/time. Once the date/time is reached, the item may be thrown away or moved to the next step in the process with a new card or label with the next appropriate date/time.

This process may be burdensome, difficult to maintain and support and subject to may errors. First, each item must have a separate label or card. Not only is this a time consuming process, but it is also subject to many errors due to the manual entry of the date/time onto each card or label. Second, each card or label must be monitored manually. If a date/time expires and no employees have noticed, then the items may either be sold to a customer or expire before being used in the next step of a process, thus leading to wasted products. Third, individual ingredients may not be tracked for each process step. The exemplary embodiments attempt to solve or mitigate these problems by providing a weighing apparatus having a plurality of user interfaces, one of which may be a process control interface. The process control interface may include a plurality of process steps which may provide process data to a print interface for printing a label with the process data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In addition to the features mentioned above, other aspects of the exemplary embodiments will be readily apparent from the following descriptions of the drawings, wherein like reference numerals across the several views refer to identical or equivalent features, and wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of one exemplary embodiment of a weighing apparatus.

FIG. 2 illustrates a main interface of one exemplary embodiment of a weighing apparatus.

FIG. 3 illustrates a process control interface of one exemplary embodiment of a weighing apparatus.

FIG. 4 illustrates a print interface of one exemplary embodiment of a weighing apparatus.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart of one exemplary method for one exemplary embodiment of a weighing apparatus.

FIG. 6 illustrates a main interface of another exemplary embodiment of a weighing apparatus.

FIG. 7 illustrates a process control interface of another exemplary embodiment of a weighing apparatus.

FIG. 8 illustrates a print interface of another exemplary embodiment of a weighing apparatus.

FIG. 9 illustrates a label setup interface of one exemplary embodiment of a weighing apparatus.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT(S)

The exemplary embodiments may generally be directed to weighing apparatus. More specifically, the exemplary embodiments may be directed to a weighing apparatus which may assist in controlling and tracking inventory and related processes, and methods for performing the same. In general, the weighing apparatus may include a force measuring device, a display and a controller. A main interface, a process control interface and a print interface may be presented on the display for guiding a user through a plurality of steps. The main interface may include a plurality of page presets and a plurality of item presets. The page presets may allow different item presets to be displayed on the main interface. Pressing the item presets may display the process control interface for that particular item. The process control interface may allow the user to enter information about the next step of the process which may be preloaded into the print interface. The print interface may allow the user to configure the label to be printed. The controller may track the information entered about the items and alert the user when an item has expired or needs to be moved to the next step of the process.

FIG. 1 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of a weighing apparatus that may have the features described above. The weighing apparatus 100 may have a force-measuring device (not shown) and a platform 102. The force-measuring device may determine the weight of an item that may be placed on the platform 102, as is known in the art. The force-measuring device can be any force-measuring device known in the art such as, but not limited to, a load cell. The weighing apparatus 100 may include an operator display 104. The operator display 104 can be integrated into the weighing apparatus 100 or be a standalone unit. The operator display 104 may generally face the operator of the weighing apparatus. The operator display 104 may be any display known in the art. For example, the operator display 104 can be a VF display, an LCD, a touch screen or any other similar display. The operator display 104 shown in FIG. 1 is a touch screen display. If a touch screen display is not used then it should be apparent that the operator display 104 could be coupled to one or more input devices such as, but not limited to, a keyboard, keypad, mouse or other similar input device. The weighing apparatus 100 may also include a customer display 106. The customer display 106 may generally face the customer. The customer display 106 may also be any display known in the art. The weighing apparatus 100 may have a printer 108. The printer 108 may be used to print labels or similar media. The weighing apparatus 100 may contain a controller 110. The controller 110 may be a programmable device capable of receiving and executing commands. Any controller known in the art may be used in the weighing apparatus 100. For example, the controller 110 may be an integrated processor with memory, a personal computer running a WINDOWS operating system or any other similar configuration. In one exemplary embodiment, a database 112 may be included in the weighing apparatus 100.

The operator display 104 may be capable of presenting a plurality of user interfaces to the operator. The user interfaces may allow the operator to input data and execute commands with the weighing apparatus 100. One such user interface is shown in FIG. 2. The main interface 200 may have a keypad 202. The main interface 200 may include a plurality of page presets 204 and a plurality of item presets 206. The page and item presets may be fully customizable by the operator or owner of the weighing apparatus 100, as will be discussed in more detail below. In one exemplary embodiment, the page presets 204 may be associated with different departments in a grocery store. The item presets 206 may be associated with individual page presets 204 so that when a particular page preset 204 is selected; a plurality of item presets 206 may be displayed. Another exemplary embodiment of a main interface is shown in FIG. 6. Selecting a particular item preset may display a second user interface, such as the user interface illustrated in FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 illustrates a process control interface 300 which may have a plurality of process steps 302. The process steps 302 may be implemented as a numbered list as shown in FIG. 3, a drop down list as shown in FIG. 7 or may be implemented similarly to the page and/or item presets shown in FIGS. 2 and 6. Once a process step 302 is selected, a third user interface may be displayed, such as that shown in FIG. 4. If an item preset only has one associated process step, the user interface 300 in FIG. 3 may be skipped and user interface 400 may be displayed. A print interface 400 may contain a plurality of fields 402 and text areas 404 that may contain information to be printed onto a label. The fields 402 may be capable of being edited by the operator to customize the layout and information associated with the label(s) being printed. One or more fields 402 and text areas 404 may be pre-filled with data received from the process control interface 300. The pre-filled data may be predefined as part of the process step 302. For example, text areas 406 and 408 may be pre-filled with data that describes the time frame of the selected process step 302, such as ‘MUST USE BEFORE’ or ‘MUST USE AFTER’. Similarly, fields 410 and 412 may be pre-filled with a date/time that is a certain number of days, hours, minutes and/or seconds in advance of the current date/time. The fields 410 and 412 may also be pre-filled with data that describes a time, such as, ‘END OF DAY’. One or more labels may be printed by printer 108 and associated with an item or items to be sold or used in processes. Another exemplary embodiment of a print interface is shown in FIG. 8. In one exemplary embodiment, the controller 110 may track the process information, such as process step data and date/time data and may alert the operator when an item or items are ready for the next step in the process. This information may be stored in a database 112. FIG. 9 illustrates a label setup interface. The label setup interface may allow label types to be edited. Information such as, the length, width, offset and formats of the labels associated with a particular label may be changed.

An example of the steps that may be taken in one exemplary embodiment of a method of use of an exemplary weighing apparatus is illustrated in FIG. 5. First, the main interface 200 may be presented on the display 106 at step 500. Next, the operator may select a page preset 204 at step 502, which may cause the item presets 206 for the selected page preset 204 to be displayed on the main interface 200 at step 504. At step 506, the operator may select an item preset 206. This may cause the process control interface 300 for the selected item to be presented on the display 106 at step 508. Next, at step 510, the operator may select a process step for the item. Data associated with the process step and item may be passed to the print interface 400 at step 512 and the print interface 400 may be presented on the display at step 514. Next, at step 516, the text areas 404 and fields 402 may be pre-filled with the data received from step 512. At optional step 518, the data in the fields 402 may be edited. Next, a label or labels may be printed at step 520. Optionally, after printing the label or labels, data associated with the item and process step may be stored at step 522. The controller 110 may track this stored information and later alert the operator when the current step is complete and the next step is required at step 524.

As discussed above, the user interfaces 200 may be customized by the owner or operator of the weighing apparatus 100. The user interfaces 200, 300 and/or 400 may be customized through the modifications of a plurality of definition files. The definition files may describe the layout and function of each user interface. Exemplary definition files may include a structure file, a mapping file, a data file and a process file. The structure file may be used to define the structure of the user interfaces. For example, the structure file may include a plurality of tags that may define structural components of the user interface. Structural components may include how many presets are included on the user interface, the size of the grid of presets, the labels associated with the presets and other similar information. The mapping file may include tags that define what pages each of the presets may navigate to when they are selected. The data file includes data to be included in the user interfaces, such as PLU data, pricing data, etc. The process file may include tags which define the process steps and associated data. For example, the tags may define the process step name, the associated preset item, the associated department, the start use date/time for the process step, the end use date/time for the process step, the legend for the start and end use dates/times, the duration of the process step, the label style associated with the process step and other similar information. The owner and/or operator of the weighing apparatus may edit these definition files to customize each of the user interfaces, what actions are taken when presets are selected, the data associated with those presets, the process steps and data associated with those process steps. This may allow the owner and/or operator to edit their process steps and other data directly as their processes may change or new processes are added.

While certain exemplary embodiments are described in detail above, the scope of the application is not to be considered limited by such disclosure, and modifications are possible without departing from the spirit of the invention as evidenced by the following claims: 

1. A weighing apparatus for managing a process comprising: a display; a main interface adapted to be presented on said display, said main interface having a plurality of presets; a process control interface associated with one of said plurality of presets and presented on said display, said process control interface having a plurality of selectable process steps associated with said preset, said process steps including process data; a print interface adapted to be presented on said display, said print interface including at least a portion of said process data.
 2. The weighing apparatus of claim 1 wherein said process data includes date and/or time data.
 3. The weighing apparatus of claim 2 wherein said process data includes start time and end time data.
 4. The weighing apparatus of claim 1 wherein said print interface includes one or more fields.
 5. The weighing apparatus of claim 1 wherein said print interface includes one or more text areas.
 6. The weighing apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a controller for tracking data related to said process steps.
 7. The weighing apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a printer for printing labels associated with said process steps.
 8. The weighing apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a database for storing said process data associated with said process steps.
 9. The weighing apparatus of claim 1 wherein said process steps are related to the production of a food item to be made available for purchase by customers.
 10. The weighing apparatus of claim 1 where said
 11. A weighing apparatus having a plurality of customizable user interfaces, at least one of which has at least one preset comprising: a process control interface associated with said preset, said process control interface defined at least in part by a process file, said process file being editable and including data for defining the process steps of the preset.
 12. The weighing apparatus of claim 11 further comprising: a main interface having said at least one preset.
 13. The weighing apparatus of claim 12 wherein said main interface is defined at least in part by a structure file, said structure file being editable and including data for defining the structure of at least said main interface.
 14. The weighing apparatus of claim 13 further comprising: a print interface associated with said process control interface.
 15. The weighing apparatus of claim 14 further comprising: a mapping file associated with said presets.
 16. The weighing apparatus of claim 15 further comprising: a data file associated with said presets.
 17. The weighing apparatus of claim 11 further comprising: a print interface associated with said process control interface.
 18. The weighing apparatus of claim 11 further comprising: a mapping file associated with said presets.
 19. The weighing apparatus of claim 11 further comprising: a data file associated with said presets.
 20. A method for controlling a process comprising: displaying a main interface having a plurality of presets; selecting one of said plurality of presets; displaying a process control interface associated with said preset and having a plurality of process steps; selecting a process step having process data associated with said process step; displaying a print interface including at least a portion of said process data; and printing a label having said portion of said process data. 